Movie review: Zombieland

Despite hearing nothing but rave reviews for it, I still didn't want to sit through Zombieland. Zombie movies aren't really my thing, but my husband loves them. After the first few minutes, he told me that I needed to watch this and restarted the movie.

The basic premise is that a virus has taken over the world. Almost everyone has turned into zombies. All of the characters (except for one well-placed cameo) are named after cities. The main character is called Columbus (Jesse Eisenberg), since he is heading there to see if his parents are still alive. On the way, he meets Tallahassee (Woody Harrelson), a rather violent yet fun-loving guy in search of a mere Twinkie. Eventually, two sisters, Wichita (Emma Stone) and Little Rock (Abigail Breslin), finish out the group. Together, they head toward California's Pacific Playland, where the sisters believe there are no zombies.

Zombieland is absolutely hysterical. I laughed my entire way through it. My husband was right. Everyone should see this movie. Even if you hate zombies, I'm pretty sure this will still be your new favorite film.

Movie review: Surrogates

In 2017, most humans use "surrogates," mind-controlled robots, to live their everyday lives. The human operator stays safely at home using the surrogate to work and play for them. Since the operator cannot be harmed if the surrogate is damaged, the world is considered safer. However, there are groups of humans, led by The Prophet, that despise the use of surrogates. One member of this section of society somehow gets his hands on a weapon that will not only shut down surrogates but will also kill the human operator. FBI agent Tom Greer (Bruce Willis) takes matters into his own hands when his boss turns a blind eye to the problem.

At first, I had no desire to see this movie. My husband, however, did so I plopped next to him on the couch when he put the DVD in the player. I was really surprised how good it was! There was quite a bit of discussion between us about whether a surrogate robot would be a good idea. And, while we weren't completely surprised at any of the 'twists,' we found great enjoyment from the journey the characters took. Even the ending was satisfying. I can't say it was an awesomely fantastic movie that everyone should run out to rent or buy, but if you like science fiction and have a couple of hours to spare, it's not a terrible way to spend your time.

Movie review: Moon

Earth is now using helium-3, harvested from the moon, as a primary energy source. In order to harvest it, Sam Bell (Sam Rockwell) is the only employee at the lunar base. His job is to rocket the fuel back to Earth, as well as keeping the machinery working. The computer's AI, GERTY (Kevin Spacey), is there to protect him no matter what.

Against my wishes, my husband rented Moon from one of the local Redboxes. I had no interest in watching a science fiction movie along the lines of 2001. Luckily, I was completely wrong about the film. While it is a drama (not usually my thing), it is eloquently executed. There is little sound and almost fewer characters. Yet this solitude is what makes the movie so emotionally moving. You feel bad for Sam and his predicament. (No, I won't tell you what it is. It's a big spoiler!) I'd almost like to see a sort-of sequel to it, but I think that would completely ruin the uniqueness of this one. This is a movie that I can definitely recommend to anyone.

Movie review: Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakuel

Like many children of the 80s, I watched a lot of "Alvin and the Chipmunks" cartoons. When the first movie came out, I was, like almost everyone I knew, hesitant to enjoy it. Would a live-action/CG Chipmunk movie be anywhere as good as the cartoons we so fondly remembered? I enjoyed it, but it felt like something was missing.

What was missing....was the Chipettes. In the 80s, there weren't a lot of good female characters. Sure, there was She-Ra and Jem, but that was about it. While the Chipettes weren't particularly strong girls, they were good counterparts to the Chipmunks. Whatever the boys could dish out, the girls could too and that was what made them loveable.

So the Chipettes have now entered into the live-action world of the Chipmunks. I loved the Chipettes singing, but their personalities seemed a little off. Britney was always a little more selfish than she was in the movie. Yes, she looked out for her sisters more than Alvin did for his brothers, but in this version, she was just a little too altruistic for their sakes. Jeanette wasn't quite nerdy enough. She should have been able to match Simon fact-to-fact. Yet it was Simon that had to help her when the girls were in trouble. In my opinion, only little Eleanor fit her original personality. She was a tad shy with a heart just as big as her tubby body. Perfect.

One of the things that surprised me was that Zachary Levi, of Chuck fame, played the lead live-action male in the show. I don't remember seeing him in any of the commercials. We all know that good old Dave Seville got laid up in the hospital thanks to Alvin's antics, but we never saw who was taking care of them while he was out of commission. There is no better nerd boy than Zachary Levi. Dave will always be the number one guy in the Chipmunk's lives, but I really hope that the writers find a way to get Toby into the third movie.

Both my sister and I enjoyed the movie just as much as my daughter did. There are some really funny jokes and, as usual, the singing was fun as well. I can't say that it is absolutely worth the money to see it in the movie theater, but it is definitely worth a rental once the DVD or Blu-Ray hits shelves.

Movie review: Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs

The animated movie "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs" appeared in theaters on September 18, 2009. Unfortunately, we were not able to watch it in the theater. Luckily, the Blu-Ray version came out on January 5, 2010. My 7-year old daughter had been bugging us to rent it as soon as she saw the Coming Soon sign on the local Redbox. We ended up renting it through Netflix instead.

I wasn't expecting a lot from the movie since I loved the book when I was a child and, as I recall, there isn't much of a plot to it. Surprisingly, the movie is quite good. The writers managed to take the thin book and turn it into an intriguing story with believable, yet funny, characters. Not only were the characters awesome, but the animation was also very good. Most people, nowadays, are looking for cutting edge "realistic" animation. While "Cloudy" isn't particularly cutting edge, the animation is clean and, to put it simply, pretty. The cherry on top is the crop of recognizable actors that were brought on board to give life to the characters. (My favorite is Neil Patrick Harris as Steve the monkey.)

"Cloudy" is definitely a must-see movie. The kids will enjoy it and I think the adults will love it as well. Good fun for everyone!

Coraline 3D

Coraline is the fairy tale story of a girl who is so utterly bored with her normal life that she retreats into a secret world where all of her fantastic dreams come true. Coraline, the main character of the story, and her parents move into the Pink Palace Apartments. Both of her parents work from home and, therefore, spend a lot of time ignoring Coraline. Her father's brilliant idea of keeping busy during a particularly rainy day (when her mother wouldn't let her go outside because of mud) was to count the number of windows in the house or count the number of doors. As Coraline goes about the excruciating task of counting thing, she comes upon a very small locked door. With only a few questions, she manages to get her mother to open the door for her. Unfortunately, all that was behind the door was a brick wall. Or was there? After Coraline falls asleep that night, a group of mice lead her back to the door where it opens into a brilliant world.

My husband and I took our daughter to see the 3D version of the movie on Sunday. Let me say that I really enjoy the 'new' 3D technology as compared to the campy 80s 3D that just made random things jump out at you. This technology gives an amazing depth to the visuals. It's somewhat difficult to explain. You just need to experience it.

I found the movie to be very fun. Yes, there are some slightly scary parts that may scare small children but my almost-7-year-old was fine. Other than that, it should be an enjoyable time for the whole family.

Xbox Live + Netflix = Fun!

I'm sure many of you know about this now. I'm going to talk about it anyway. If you have an Xbox 360 that is Live enabled and a Netflix account, you can stream movies and television shows right to your television. And it's not just a huge list of crappy movies either. My daughter is a big fan of Hannah Montana so we've queued up the entire first and second seasons of the show for her. My husband likes Red Dwarf so we have the last three seasons set up for him. I love Japanese dramas and anime so there's things like R.O.D. the TV on my list. It's a great way to spend a relaxing weekend - catching up on old TV shows or watching movies. If only there were more hours in the day for me to work through our queue!

Movie review: Iron Man

My husband, my daughter and I went to see Iron Man on Saturday. At first, I was worried about whether or not my 6-year old would enjoy the movie. She liked Transformers but it was too loud for her and I was concerned that this movie would have the same problem. Luckily, it did not and she had a great time. For those of you that live under a rock, here is the basic plot. Tony Stark is the billionaire owner of Stark Industries, a company that mostly makes weapons for the United States government. He truly believes that his weapons are protecting people by removing terrorist threats. After a demonstration of one of his new technologies, his transport is attacked and he winds up being kidnapped. During his captivity, he finds out that his weapons are being used by the terrorists. The terrorists force him to replicate his newest weapon. Instead, he creates a huge iron suit so he can escape. Once he is back home, he tries his best to change his company into a more responsible entity. However, the board of directors overrules him and forces him into vigilantism. He creates a new, better robotic suit, transforming into the superhero, Iron Man.

In my opinion, the movie was wonderful. Robert Downey Jr. was the perfect choice to be Tony Stark. I even liked some of the small changes they made to the characters. Of course, there are some people that would nitpick at the choice of villain for the movie. On the contrary, I think that it was a really good decision since this movie needed to establish Tony Stark and his motives for becoming Iron Man. He isn't like Spiderman or Batman where most people are at least vaguely familiar with the character. There needed to be a villain that wouldn't overshadow the transformation of Tony Stark the businessman to Tony Stark the superhero.

I hope that everyone stayed to watch the scene after the credits. All I will say is that I am very excited for the future of the franchise and some of the other Marvel franchises.

Movie review: Forgetting Sarah Marshall

My husband and I went to see Forgetting Sarah Marshall today. Here's the premise of the movie: Peter (Jason Segel) has been dating television star Sarah Marshall (Kristen Bell) for the past five years. One day, Sarah suddenly breaks up with him. It turns out that she has been dating rock star Aldous Snow (Russell Brand). In an attempt to forget about Sarah, Peter goes on a Hawaiian vacation, only to find out that Sarah and Aldous are at the exact same hotel. Peter befriends most of the hotel staff, including customer service rep Rachel Jansen (Mila Kunis). With their help, he realizes that he is more than just "Sarah Marshall's boyfriend." I expected Sarah Marshall to be funny. However, I didn't expect it to be this funny. The script, which is absolutely brilliant, was written by Segel. There are also a few original songs he wrote for the movie as well. All of the actors gave amazing performances, though I have to admit that I loved Russell Brand the best. This isn't a movie that you can go see with your kids though. There are a lot of sex jokes and quite a few penis shots. (It is rated R, in case you weren't paying attention.) But if you are of age and have a good sense of humor, I think you will really enjoy the movie. I know I'll be buying the DVD the day it comes out.

Movie review: Cloverfield

No, I didn't see Cloverfield in the theater. It was probably a good thing considering the shakiness of the hand-held camera work. I felt nauseous just watching it at home. I can't imagine how people made it through the movie on the big screen. There will be spoilers in this so if you haven't seen it and you don't want to be spoiled, stop reading now.

OK. Let's talk about this thing. I've been looking forward to Cloverfield since the teasers started coming out last year. Unfortunately, my husband and I just didn't get the chance to see it on the big screen. However, friends of ours saw it and said the graphics were really nauseating. I completely agree. I understand why they used a hand-cam for the movie but I really think it detracted more than it added anything to the film as a whole. Sure, you got the "in the midst of the battle" feeling...but you couldn't SEE anything half the time. It was just a jumble of pictures while the main characters were running. The only time the camera was still enough to see anything was when the characters were standing or sitting still, which wasn't very often. I think it might have been a bit better if they had mixed steady-cam shots with the hand-cam shots. Show an outside view while the characters were running but then switch back to the home video when they are sitting around talking. Not only would it have made the movie easier to watch but we would have been able to keep track of the characters better.

My next problem with it was how the monster was handled. In the DVD extras as well as in many interviews, J.J. Abrams kept talking about Godzilla and how he wanted to make an iconic monster for America. I don't think he's ever seen a Godzilla movie. Those movies focused on the monster as well as the humans. Not to mention that, since Godzilla was created thanks to some hydrogen bomb testing, there are quite a very environmental messages in there too. In Cloverfield, we learn nothing about the monster. We don't even know where it came from! According to the interview with Abrams, the monster is a newborn. There isn't anything in the movie to indicate this nor is there any explanation for the parasite-type creatures that the monster drops. So that negates classifying this as a "monster movie." The monster is only there to act as a catalyst to move the human characters into motion.

Ah, the humans. There's Rob (the guy going to Japan), Hud (Rob's best friend and the cameraman for the movie), Beth (Rob's sorta-girlfriend), Jason (Rob's brother), Lily (Rob's girlfriend) and Marlena (Lily's friend). At no point in time are we compelled to feel anything about most of these characters. Rob is a douche and he tries to make up for it by trying to save Beth after treating her like crap. We don't learn a whole lot about Hud, beyond the fact that he hits on women a lot, because he's generally behind the camera. Jason kicks the bucket early on, leaving Lily to hold the group of friends together. Poor Marlena got the short end of the stick since she wasn't even supposed to be at the farewell party for Rob in the first place. Not only did I not care about these characters, I was actually rooting for their death by the middle of the movie. There was no real emotion behind any of their actions. The only reason Rob wanted to save Beth was because after having sex with her then not contacting her for two weeks, she decided to move onto another relationship when *BAM!* Rob realized he loves Beth. Yeah, Rob, you didn't love her until she found a new man. Douche.

And that is the entire plot of the movie. Rob and his friends try to rescue a girl that he realizes, in the middle of a monster attack, that he loves. I don't even believe that he loved her. I believe that he felt badly about the way he treated her. I believe that he cared for her a bit. However, I mostly believe that the only reason he wanted to save her was to save himself from being the big dickwad of the movie. Too late, Rob.

After all of this, I can't say that it was a bad movie. It just wasn't a good movie. It definitely wasn't a good monster movie. If Abrams was aiming to give the American audience an iconic monster to identify with, he failed miserably. Yes, the monster was cool looking but there was nothing about it for us to identify with. There was nothing to make the monster endearing to us. Nothing to make us want to buy a big plushie Cloverfield monster for our bedroom. There are rumors that there will be a sequel. I can only pray that they do a better job than they did with the original.